BRIEFSPRO BONO‘WE ALL NEED HELP SOMETIMES’WHY RUSSELL AUSTIN CAN’T SAY NO TO COMMUNITY SERVICE BY DAN FOST

In 2010, Russell Austin took a tour of
a homeless shelter run by Saint John’s
Program for Real Change, led by a
woman who had been living there for
about six weeks.

“This woman had a couple of
small kids and had lost her home to
foreclosure, and her husband had
disappeared,” says Austin, who heads
the commercial real estate team at
Sacramento’s Murphy Austin Adams
Schoenfeld. “She had nowhere to go,
and she was ready, willing and able to
sign up for Saint John’s [shelter]. It’s a lot
of work.” The shelter requires residents
to meet deadlines, earn their GEDs,
take substance-abuse counseling and
parenting classes if needed, and meet
curfew restrictions.

A few months later, Austin saw the
woman again when she was working
at Plates Café, a restaurant run by
Saint John’s to provide on-the-job work
opportunities.

“She was the hostess,” he says. “Oneof the regular customers, who owned abusiness, was so impressed with [her]that, at her graduation, he hired her ata salary of $40,000 to be part of hiscustomer-service team.”Austin eats regularly at Plates,which is near to his heart because hehelped negotiate its first lease at a localbusiness park. When he heard that SaintJohn’s needed a new shelter, he pitchedin on that project, too. Austin securedgifts from banks and other donors,including a $1 million sponsorship fromone bank. He then connected with clientand developer Larry Allbaugh, CEO ofThe Buzz Oates Group of Companies,who provided land at a bargain price andbuilt the shelter. The doors opened inMarch 2014.

“It was a great way for me to bring myday-job skills to [community] service,”says Austin, who has logged more than350 hours—worth more than $250,000in donated value—since 2010 for SaintJohn’s. And that’s just one of his probono clients.

A native of the LA suburbs—he played
ball at San Gabriel High School with
future San Francisco Giants pitcher
(and announcer) Mike Krukow—Austin
graduated from UC Berkeley School of
Law in 1980 and went to work for Marron
Reid, a small San Francisco firm.

When he opened the firm’sSacramento office 1 ½ years later, hesays, “I needed to build up a practice andmake a name for myself in a city whereI knew nobody. Volunteer work was thebest way to go about that.”Austin started working with the younglawyers’ division of the SacramentoCounty Bar, as well as the local VoluntaryLegal Services Program and LegalServices of Northern California.

“I don’t know the details of how tohelp a client with a Social Security claim,but I do know how to run things, andI do know how to promote communityinvolvement,” he says. “Lawyers have hadthe benefit of legal education that helpsus develop skills in solving problems, andwe have a professional obligation to usethose skills for community service.”Austin has applied those skills in avariety of legal arenas, focusing on theenvironment and the arts in addition tohomelessness. He served on the board ofCrocker Art Museum and the SacramentoValley Conservancy. Now he’s helping BStreet Theatre expand into a new complex.Austin worked at Marron Reid for 18years, and in 1999 co-founded MurphyAustin. “My partners and colleagues,both at Marron Reid and here, have reallybeen very, very supportive of my pro bonowork,” Austin says. “I’ve never had anyonesay, ‘You need to do less of this.’”He downplays the challenge of findingenough time. “You build it into your life,” hesays. “You’re taking on clients. They happento be pro bono. They are just as important,and deserve the same level of service as anyother client you’re working with.”If Austin needs a reminder of why heputs in so many pro bono hours, he onlyhas to think about the woman who onceguided him around the shelter.

“The transformation of this woman
from when I first met her on that tour,
when she was feeling the shock of being
in a homeless shelter, to the pride
and self-confidence she evidenced at
graduation—where she could provide
a stable environment for her two small
kids—it was wonderful to behold.

“Life can be tough. You can getknocked around. We all need helpsometimes.”